How Melinda Gates became one of the world’s richest and most powerful women – from Microsoft, marriage and motherhood to fighting global poverty

May 12 , 2021

Microsoft, marriage and motherhood is just a part of the Melinda Gates story. Photo: @Forbes/Twitter

Forbes ranked Melinda Gates the second most powerful woman in America behind Vice-president Kamala Harris – and divorce will only raise her profile further

She will continue to co-chair the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and fights for gender equality – what else could the split and fresh start bring?

Melinda Gates is the fifth most powerful woman in the world, and the second American – after Vice-president Kamala Harris – to make Forbes’ 2020 list of the world’s 100 most powerful women.

She and Bill – her husband of 27 years – announced their divorce on May 3. Though they don’t have a prenuptial agreement, if they split their US$146 billion fortune equally, Melinda will be worth around US$73 billion – which would make her the world’s 13th richest person, and second richest woman, just behind India’s Mukesh Ambani.

Melinda Gates has become one of the most prolific philanthropists in the world, as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which she helmed virtually on her own for the first six years of operation. She is now co-chair of the foundation with Bill, positions they said they will maintain even after the divorce.

Bill and Melinda Gates are to split. Photo: @thisisbillgates/Instagram

She said in a statement posted to Twitter that she and Bill continue to believe in the mission of the foundation and will continue their work there.

In addition to the foundation’s education and health care initiatives, Gates takes a personal interest in women’s issues around the world. At the forefront of her agenda is expanding the availability of contraception and bringing awareness to the concept of time poverty – the notion that hours of daily unpaid work like household chores end up “robbing women of their potential”.

Here’s how she became one of the world’s richest and most powerful women

Melinda Gates (neè French) grew up in Dallas, Texas, with her parents – a stay-at-home mother and an aerospace engineer father – and her three siblings. The family belonged to the local Roman Catholic parish.